News Release: Dspfactory recognized for promoting innovation

From: Dspfactory - Feb 27, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dspfactory recognized for promoting innovation --Success of Toccata Plus and BelaSigna 200 honoured with 2004 Innovation Award

WATERLOO, ON -- February 27, 2004 -- Dspfactory Ltd., a leading provider of reprogrammable digital signal processing (DSP) technology for digital hearing aids, wireless headsets and other portable audio devices, has won the 2004 Chamber Innovation Award. The award was presented Thursday night at a gala dinner in Kitchener as part of the annual Business Excellence Awards, organized by the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

The Innovation Award recognizes companies that promote innovation and which have developed an innovative product that has made a significant and measurable impact. Dspfactory was selected from 13 nominated companies representing some of the most innovative organizations in Kitchener-Waterloo, an area known across Canada and internationally for its contributions to a knowledge-based economy.

"We're very honoured to be recognized among the many outstanding organizations and individuals that are part of this great community," said Dspfactory vice president of technology Todd Schneider in accepting the award. "We've built a great team of professionals who are dedicated to innovation and are constantly pushing the boundaries of audio processing technology."

Dspfactory was recognized for the success of its second-generation SignaKlara DSP-based platform technology and the Toccata Plus and BelaSigna 200 chips that are based on it. The open platform chips deliver twice the processing power in half the space of their predecessors.

Dspfactory's highly-flexible DSP-based audio systems are specifically designed for portable devices where exceptional sound clarity, ultra-low power consumption, and miniaturization are critical design requirements. With Dspfactory technology, device manufacturers can quickly bring the leading-edge performance of digital signal processing to a wide range of audio and speech products. The chips are already being used by some of the world's largest digital hearing aid and headset manufacturers.

The Innovation Award also paid tribute to the internal processes Dspfactory has established to advance innovation in the workplace. "We invest heavily in research and development and allocate a significant budget for 'blue-sky' projects each year," said vice president of research Rob Brennan. "We also have implemented an invention recognition program that rewards employees for inventions patented."

Added Schneider, "With continued focus on innovation and helping our customers develop innovative products, we believe that our success to this point is merely a preamble of great things to come."

About Dspfactory
Dspfactory Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company, is a leading-edge developer of ultra-miniaturized, ultra-low power, software-programmable, digital signal processing (DSP) technology. Dspfactory's mission is to embed its unique technology ubiquitously into a wide range of market applications. Its target markets include hearing aids, headsets, personal digital assistants, personal digital audio players, embedded sensors, baseband wireless devices, cellular telephones, or any other portable, battery-powered DSP-based product where size and power consumption are as important as flexible, advanced software processing capabilities. To support the development and implementation of signal processing software solutions on its technology platforms, Dspfactory also provides a complete set of easy-to-use support tools and services, ranging from software development and testing tools to custom DSP software development and engineering services. For more information, visit http://www.dspfactory.com.

###

Media Contact:
Richard McClurg
Marketing Communications Manager
Dspfactory Ltd.

Tel: +1 519 884 9696 Ext. 2283
E-mail: richard.mcclurg@dspfactory.com